nDAC formats
Posted by: Lightkeeper on 23 December 2011
Hi,
manual says DAC supports .wav format and it is not mentioned any other lossless format.
Could you please tell which lossless formats DAC supports?
thank you
Merry Christmas Mr Lighthouse
Think there is a bit of confusion. the Naim DAC will play just about any digital input and when aspirated by a 555PS, it will play it better than, or at least as well as, anything else out there in the known universe.
nDAC supports PCM it will not play DSD from SACD transports, but just about everything else.
The player, (for example a Naim UQ, US, ND5 XS, NDX, MacMini, PC with appropriate software, Sonos ZP90, SB Touch or iPad/Pod/Phone), will convert from various codecs,(for example, WAV, AIFF, ALAC, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, Monkey Media APE, AAC, MP3) in to PCM. You can also use a CD/MiniDisc/DAT transport (for example CDX2-2 or CD5XS) which will output in to PCM.
PCM is the Esperanto of digital audio.
It is the renderer (player) that needs to understand the formats, not the DAC. The Naim DAC is not a pure DAC, it has a renderer (player) for USB Sticks only, it is this part that plays WAV (it may play FLAC too, not tried it) - it is only for this function that the CODEC is relevant. Playing from USB sticks does give stunning results, but it is a pain to put all you music on sticks.
Just run a Wireworld Supernova optical cable from the optical out on your player to the Naim DAC's optical input and you're there. Alternatively, you could use the Naim DC1 if your player hasn't got a high quality optical out. Or if you are using a PC or older Mac then a MF V-Link or another USB/S-PDIF converter (as long as they are asynchronous then they are much or muchness)
Guy.
Guido
...ah that explains it - thanks for that. I was wondering why my DAC merrily played hi-res memory sticks with a simple software update whereas other network products need a hardware upgrade.
For the record the DAC happily plays hi-res FLAC files. I'm currently working my way through the B&W Society of Sound files on 24/96 FLAC (worth joining for the Cara Dillon recording alone). The DCs free sample downloads in 24/192 mentioned elsewhere in this forum also work just fine.
[...I've just left the boss with very clear instructions on which version of Kate Bush's new album I would like as a "surprise" tomorrow!]
Merry Christmas to all of you out there - especially those educating the great unwashed like myself!
Martin C
Guido,
excellent writing, thank you very much.
Oz